Students find maturity in gap year experience

As Ben Wong settled into his freshman year at San Diego State University he was surrounded by homesick freshmen who tensed up over impending exams or projects coming due.

Lori Gilbert

As Ben Wong settled into his freshman year at San Diego State University he was surrounded by homesick freshmen who tensed up over impending exams or projects coming due.

The Lodi High graduate didn't share that angst.

"When I have an essay due, I don't worry about it," said Wong, a civil engineering major. "I get what I need to get done, done, and that's it."

His maturity isn't a result of being 20, a year older than his peers. It's that he gained a different approach by taking a year off between high school and his enrolling last fall at San Diego State.

Wong is one of a growing number of American students who have experienced a gap year. Long popular in Europe, the practice enables high school graduates to spend a year learning through a designed program before starting college.

Gap year participation isn't sweeping San Joaquin County, but media outlets from The New York Times to "Today" are profiling it, and some say it's a growing trend.

"There's a lot more interest," said Gail Reardon, who 16 years ago started Taking Off, a Boston counseling service that helps students plan gap years. "We had our busiest year last year."

Gap year fairs are popping up at high schools, said Holly Bull, president of the New Jersey-based Center for Interim Programs. Her father, Neil, started the gap year consulting service in 1980.

The enthusiasm seems largely to have bypassed San Joaquin County.

"I don't have students who've inquired about it or are aware of it," said Jane Burhoe, head counselor at Lincoln High School, echoing counterparts at other county high schools. "Some (college) admissions people think it's a good idea."

Princeton University recently announced plans to look into financing "bridge year" programs for 10 percent of its incoming freshman classes. Harvard urges its accepted students to defer enrollment for a year to experience a meaningful program.

University of the Pacific will defer enrollment for up to a year but doesn't get many requests, assistant provost for enrollment Tom Rajala said. Pacific doesn't have the resources to fund gap year programs, but Rajala, for one, endorses them.

"It's probably a good trend," he said. "For a long time, there was an expectation that the only way college worked was if you went directly out of high school. I know by personal experience not every 17- or 18-year-old is ready for that."

Wong, who had always been a good student, was ready for college, but late in his senior year he received a Congress-Bundestag scholarship to spend a year in a German high school. He had been accepted to San Diego State and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and sought a deferral.

"I got a one-sentence response: 'Have fun in Germany, and see you next year,' " Wong said.

Starting college when he returned was never in doubt.

"He was always academically inclined, and we brought him up to go to college," mother Susanne Wong said. "The expectations were for him to go to college, but this was a great opportunity."

In that way, Wong is typical.

"Parents are concerned their kids won't go back to school, that they'll take a year and go off into the wild blue yonder," said North Carolina-based Karl Haigler, who is writing a book with his wife, Rae Nelson, on the impact of gap years. "Nothing we've found in our data or interviews supports the notion of kids not going back to school."

Rather, Haigler said, "They come back with a renewed sense of excitement about learning."

A smorgasbord of programs exist, in the U.S. and abroad, ranging from serving others to saving the environment.

Reardon counseled a girl who worked in Calcutta with Mother Teresa.

Bull, one of her father's first clients in 1980, worked on an aquaculture research program in Hawaii and learned she didn't want to be a marine biologist after all.

Helping kids discover their true interests is just one of the benefits.

"What the kids say, if I can represent them correctly, is this is priceless," said Haigler, who, with his wife, has surveyed 260 students for their book. "It helps you get more out of college when you go."

Wong, who is now fluent in German and hopes to land a summer internship with Mercedes-Benz, agrees.

"The year off prepared me for life," Wong said. "I can make it anywhere."